Experts: Pilot before crash was calm, but plane's nose-dive came quickly

Saturday

Jan 12, 2013 at 4:59 PMJan 13, 2013 at 9:39 AM

An air traffic controller in Daytona Beach was guiding Michael Anders to the Flagler County Airport, five miles away. But about three minutes after initially reporting the problem, Anders calmly radioed he had "zero oil pressure." That signaled the situation was dire.

FRANK FERNANDEZSTAFF WRITER

Pilot Michael Anders sounded calm and in control as he and two passengers descended through the sky and clouds from 7,000 feet with a troubling vibration and dropping oil pressure in his single-engine plane. An air traffic controller in Daytona Beach was guiding Anders to the Flagler County Airport, five miles away. But about three minutes after initially reporting the problem, Anders calmly radioed he had "zero oil pressure." That signaled the situation was dire, said Scott Shappell, chairman of the Human Factors and Systems Department at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach. "That scares me. That's the part that scares me," Shappell said. Without oil the engine is going to seize, so a pilot needs to start searching for a spot to land, even if it's not a runway, Shappell said. "You are looking to put it down on the beach. You are looking to put it down anywhere," Shappell said. "Personally, I think he's hard-pressed to make the (Flagler County Airport) field at that point once he's out of oil. Basically he's not lubricating the engine." Anders never made it to the Flagler County Airport that afternoon on Jan. 4. His 1957 Beechcraft Bonanza was flying low when it fell out of the air and plunged into a house at 22 Utica Path in Palm Coast, near the east side of the airport. Inside the house, Susan Crockett managed to escape out a back window. But everyone aboard the plane died: Anders, who had turned 58 on the day of the crash, was from Albany, Ky. Also aboard were one of Anders' neighbors', Duane Shaw, 59, and Shaw's fiancée, Charissee Peoples, 42, of Indianapolis. The three were flying from Fort Pierce to Kentucky after a vacation in the Caribbean. The National Transportation Safety Board is unlikely to issue a full report on the crash for about a year. Anders was a capable and careful pilot, said his brother, Louie Anders, 68, who lives near Bowling Green, Ky. Michael Anders was a U.S. Navy veteran and a Spanish teacher at Clinton County High School in Kentucky. He was also fluent in French. Louie Anders said he used to fly ultralights and believes his brother picked up his love of flying from him. According to Federal Aviation Administration records, Michael Anders received his pilot's license in February 2002 and was rated to fly in instrument conditions, relying if need be on gauges, indicators and other instruments to pilot the plane through murky weather. Michael Anders had not mentioned any mechanical problems with his 1957 Beechcraft Bonanza, his brother said. Louie Anders said that while he had not flown with his brother lately, he used to fly with him a lot. The pair had flown to Arkansas to fish for trout, to New Orleans for a birthday party and to Fort Campbell, Ky., for a chess tournament, another one of Michael Anders' interests. "He'd pick me up and we'd just go flying, enjoy flying," Louie Anders said. He said the trip to Fort Campbell about five years ago got dicey. Ice formed on the Bonanza's wings. "He handled it quite well," Louie Anders said of his brother. "He let the tower know the size of the ice, the sluggishness of the plane. I don't think we had much longer as far as that plane coming down. I don't think the tower realized we had that much ice. He handled it perfectly." But the situation over Palm Coast turned out far from perfect as Anders tried to pilot the plane to the Flagler County Airport. Shappell praised Anders' composure under the circumstances. "The pilot is incredibly cool and calm, which is always a good thing," Shappell said. Shappell also said that while the sky was not clear, Anders had enough space to maneuver and see the airport once he descended beneath the clouds floating 900 to 1,000 feet above the ground. That's the rough equivalent of a 60- to 70-story skyscraper worth of space, he said. "My sense is that he made a conscious decision that he can make Flagler," Shappell said. "He is hoping he can make Flagler before the engine seizes, but he didn't make it," But the weather did make things tougher on Anders, said Marty Lauth, an associate professor of air traffic management at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. "It just happened that he had two things that did not work in his favor," Lauth said. "First of all, a problem with his aircraft and he was going over an area that was totally socked in. It was totally overcast; he couldn't see the ground." Even though Anders was four to five miles from the Flagler County Airport when he reported the problem — he was flying at 7,000 to 7,500 feet, so he had to descend and maneuver to line up for the landing, Lauth said. That's why at some points in the radio transmission it seems Anders is no closer to the airport than he was at the beginning of the crisis. And it's not uncommon for an air traffic controller to hear of a rough running engine. "The pilot could have made it clear that this is a major problem or this thing's ready to fall out of the sky," Lauth said. "But if he can't see where to land, that's as much of a problem as a rough running engine." And Anders did not expect his plane to suddenly plummet, Lauth added. "It didn't even give him enough time to make a call (to say), 'Hey, we are falling or crashing," Lauth said. "It just happened." Both Lauth and Shappell said they believe the plane went into a stall, meaning it lost the lift that kept it aloft. Michael Anders did not declare an emergency even though an FAA manual said the initial communication should begin with "Mayday." Even though the word Mayday was not used, Anders and the air traffic controller appeared to have exchanged the information listed for a distress situation in the FAA's aeronautical information manual.That includes information about the weather, altitude, heading, number of people on board and how much fuel remained in the plane and the nature of the problem. Lauth said that had Anders declared an emergency, it probably wouldn't have made a difference. "From what I have heard about it, the controller handled it almost as if it was an emergency even though he didn't declare it or the pilot," Lauth said. "And a lot of times they won't declare it." But declaring an emergency is important, according to another Embry-Riddle professor, Dan Cutrer, associate professor of homeland security. "In the event that there is an emergency, one of the most important things for a pilot to do is to declare that emergency, to say that word," Cutrer said. "If you don't do that, sometimes the air traffic controller understands that there is a situation but they may not understand that it's life threatening." Pilots also sometimes misjudge the situation. "A lot of times pilots may overestimate their own abilities or they dont' recognize how bad the situation is," Cutrer said.